SJOM Educates, Finkl Academy Participates
Published: February 7, 2012
This is the second year that Finkl students visited San Jose Obrero Mission through a volunteer program called EAR, which stands for Educate, Act and Reflect. Mr. Grueba, one of the founders of the program and a teacher at Finkl Academy, explained that the purpose of the EAR program is for students interested in learning about issues affecting their community to have an opportunity outside of the classroom to explore and learn through their own initiatives as participation in the EAR program is completely voluntary.
Each quarter students choose a different topic. For the winter quarter the subject of homelessness was chosen. Through the collaboration with SJOM, the students and their families learned about the realities and myths about homelessness and the individuals that SJOM serves. Executive Director, Israel Vargas invited the students in the EAR program for a site visit on January 28, 2012.
SJOM’s Executive Director welcomed the Finkl families by personally giving the families a tour of the Families in Crisis facility explaining SJOM’s approach to providing a nurturing and safe environment to those women and women with children that we serve. Having interim housing that is secure along with providing basic needs like healthcare, individualized case management, career training, job placement assistance, life skills, and referrals is key to stabilizing participants and that leads to self sufficiency.
Many of the students had misconceptions about what a “shelter” looked like and about the different individual and family situations that cause homelessness. Mr. Vargas clarified to the families that SJOM participants are ordinary people who may have a period of facing certain barriers that lead them to becoming homeless barriers such as foreclosure, job loss, domestic violence or bed credit. Staff at SJOM is a bilingual bicultural staff that is knowledgeable about the issues affecting the community and we are equipped to assist families to stabilization
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